Honda Motor on Thursday reported its first annual loss since turning into a publicly traded firm in Japan seven a long time in the past, because the expensive retreat from its bold electric-vehicle targets plunged earnings into the pink.
The Japanese automaker reported a internet lack of $2.7 billion for the fiscal 12 months ended March 31. Earnings had been weighed down by greater than $9 billion in restructuring costs and write-downs following a retrenchment of its E.V. technique. It’s the first loss that the 77-year-old firm has reported since itemizing on the Tokyo Inventory Trade in 1957.
The sharp downturn underscores the extent to which Honda — and lots of different automakers that poured billions into electrical automobiles — has been buffeted by cooling demand.
Simply 5 years in the past, Honda was racing to catch as much as Tesla and Chinese language rivals comparable to BYD in constructing electrical automobiles. It pledged to make its whole lineup electrical or hydrogen-powered by 2040, a break from different Japanese automakers like Toyota, which continued to throw its weight behind hybrid and gasoline-powered automobiles. Honda started allocating billions to develop battery-powered automobiles each in-house and in partnerships with Normal Motors and Sony.
Nonetheless, shoppers weren’t fairly prepared. After an preliminary wave of early adopters propped up gross sales, another mainstream consumers balked, largely because of lingering concerns about charging infrastructure and excessive sticker costs. Then, final 12 months, federal subsidies for a lot of electrical fashions had been successfully gutted beneath the Trump administration.
In 2025, electrical automobile gross sales fell about 4 % from a 12 months earlier in the US, Honda’s greatest automotive market. That ended a half-decade-long, record-breaking development streak for electrical automobiles. The slowdown has additionally weighed on American majors. Earlier this 12 months, Ford said its electric-vehicle division misplaced $4.8 billion in 2025 and would possible proceed to lose cash for no less than two extra years.
In March, Honda Chief Govt Toshihiro Mibe introduced the cancellation of three main electrical fashions initially destined for the North American market. An inexpensive line that Honda was creating with Normal Motors and a software-laden automobile it was codeveloping with Sony have been placed on ice.
